Wednesday, April 26, 2017

I truly cannot compare the two schools I’ve been at.. that
would be unfair. The circumstances are totally different. I am lucky enough to
find and make some really, really, realllllly good friends at both locations.
Like.. life long friends that I would trust with just about anything. I don’t
know if everyone has that at their work places, and I am very grateful that I
have been able to find that!!

There is one glaring difference between my friends at HMS
and my friends at GMS. At GMS, I have married friends. I’ve considered if I
naturally gravitated towards them since I am now married myself.. but I think
these people and I were just meant to be. We have our own group on Snapchat and
our own group on text with our very own clique name. We come from different
backgrounds and have different beliefs, but we are all excellent teachers and
love our students…. And we’re pretty cool and funny too.

One of my favorite texts happened this weekend, “Ok. How do
you keep your husbands from eating things intended for recipes during the
week?!?!!” Ha it was funny because it’s happened to me too!!! I didn’t really
have an answer.. actually I’m not sure anyone answered. Has anyone figured out
this question to life!?

Also, they understand when I have to sleep in the bed by
myself. Last weekend I was creeping on someone in my life and didn’t want to
screenshot their snapchat… so I texted one of the girls and said hey.. will you
have your husband record the snapchat on your phone… because Travis is out of
town. And she did it!! Except she had to do it like five times because she kept
laughing and I needed to send it to someone important.

We can also discuss important things like money. Not the
specifics, of course… but it’s really nice to be able to have a discussion with
a married person about money. Everything from “who is the money person” which I
despise… mainly because just because I don’t check the online bank every hour,
doesn’t mean I’m not a money person. But to saving for a down payment on a
house, to eventually moving because families are expanding.. it’s really nice
to be able to communicate with a married person who gets it.

They’re also the first people that text you when they hear
the school is on lockdown after school yesterday. Besides my mom and husband,
it was them I was texting.. as I sat in my assistant principal’s office for
nearly two hours. They were the people that were concerned for me and everyone
else on campus. They were also the people that have a soft spot for a student
that is crying out. (Sidenote: he had a bb gun and was never on campus, just
close by) But it was a long two hours and I was appreciative to those immediate
texts that said, “If you’re at school, I’m praying for you.”

Needless to say, as I was reflecting about my school year
and that day specifically, I just kept coming back to how great my married
friends are.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

I have a new plan for my life. I’m gonna open up a Tex Mex
restaurant. I threw the idea out on twitter last night after my meal hit. The.
Spot. And I got one like and one reply of “I’ll invest”… so I’m pretty sure
I’ll be successful.

What did I make?

Chicken Jalapeno Taquitos… or Flautas… I’m not sure which
one it’s technically called. I also tried making an avocado ranch for the first
time. And it did not disappoint. So basically, that’s what my restaurant will
consist of… taquito flautas… and avocado ranch. I’m sure we’ll have some type
of nachos. Those shrimp nachos I made that one time were also the bomb dot com.
Oh and crock pot chicken with a can of salsa. It’s so good. I will now be
taking applications…

Oh, and a name. I am open to suggestions.

Back to these flaquitos… I had leftover rotisserie chicken
that I needed to use. I also had a pico that I hadn’t opened. So, I grabbed
some cream cheese, avocados, and white corn tortillas at the store.

I had my sous chef (Travis) mix the cream cheese and
chicken. (Hint: This is much easier when the cream cheese is at room
temperature) Then I added pico, jalapenos, a dash of garlic powder and Mexican
shredded cheese. I melted some butter and put butter all over the bottom of the
pan. I rolled them semi tightly and put them folded side down. I crammed them in there.. I figured it would
help keep them closed.

Then I popped them in the oven at 425 for 15 minutes. During
that time I had my sous chef mash some avocados, I took about 1/8 of the mashed
avocado and mixed it with some ranch and avocado oil to make it a little less
thick. With 5 minutes remaining, I opened the oven door, slathered a line of
avocado ranch and then sprinkled some more cheese on top. I let it bake the
remaining 5 minutes and then turned in on a high broil for 3 min!

I made guacamole with the remaining mashed avocados, had
some leftover guac ranch, had regular salsa, and a chipotle salsa. YUM. Next up was just deciding how we were going to eat it! I smothered mine with more guacamole ranch... Trav piled some leftover stuffing on his. It was so good.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Y’all. We’re having a blast with the lake house. There’s
always “projects” or “work” to be done… but it doesn’t feel like work when you’re
there! It feels like an escape and you get to continue making it into our
space.

We had a discussion at Easter about how awesome the beds
were at the lake house… then we decided maybe we are just so tired every time,
we sleep awesome no matter what!

Our room is almost complete, but I’m keeping my eye out for
anything that needs to go in there. We finally hung our succulent, and I love
the addition of the green to the collage. I went back and forth with ordering
an air plant or not.. I eventually decided on an artificial plant due to
turning the air up when we’re not at the lake house. I hear the air plants are
pretty durable, but I don’t know about a Texas summer.

Here is the downstairs so far! Shop Mama has done a phenomenal
job decorating the lake house with shade of blue? I wasn’t sure if I should say
turquoise? It’s beautiful, and one of my favorite things is the large island in
the kitchen… we already stand around it all the time.

The upstairs is a work in progress! But the pool table, foosball
table, and darts are all up there!

Here was mine and Shop’s latest project. We needed to take a
bench that Glen made and change it from maroon to fit our décor in the living
room.

We began by spray painting the
entire thing turquoise... we, of course, had our helper Koal. Then we took a metallic bronze and lightly sprayed and
patted some off. Shop just kept telling me, “you can’t mess it up!” The sun was
facing the wrong way when the product was finished, so I took a picture of the
back of it! We let it dry and it’s now in the living room!

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Yesterday, I received an email from my husband asking me to go on a fishing date.

There were three different options for dinner and I quickly accepted. We're new boat owners (a fishing boat).. so I thought it was a fantastic idea.

We were on the water by 5:30 and Travis had caught his first fish by 6 pm. A lovely bass. All about that bass, bout that bass.

I caught myself a realllllllly big stick fish. You haven't heard of that species? It's very rare... and very hard to catch. But I managed!! And I am so proud.

Then my lovely husband had gone to the store and gotten a veggie tray, chips and salsa, summer sausage, cheese, and diet coke!! It was the best lake dinner ever!!

I told Travis when we got the boat that I wanted to learn to back the trailer down. I'm not gonna be the wife that sits in the boat helpless as her husband does all the work. I've backed a boat trailer down once before, and I knew I wanted that to be my job. Travis can back a trailer into the smallest space possible... oh 2 inches on this side? Not a problem. I watched and listened to his thinking while he put the boat in... then, I backed the trailer down (with him on speaker phone) to pick the boat back up! It wasn't perfect... but our phone call was under 5 minutes which I was proud of.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Located on the west side of Lake Whitney… almost to the
beginning of the hill country. I left school at 3:15 pm and jumped on 30W..
this took me south of downtown Ft. Worth, so I didn’t even have to go through
downtown which is always a win. Then I jumped on the new Chisholm Trail
Tollway! I took that all the way to Cleburne where I hopped on the little back
highway 174. I was there by 5:00 and was able to catch the first sunset!

Dinner was a clam linguine over my special gluten free
noodles! We went on a quick exploration walk, and then sat by the fire! Before
we knew it, it was 10:45 and we had to go to bed!

We were up by 7 and cooking cheese grits… my favorite
staple. My mom’s cousin Carrie doesn’t eat grits on the reg like I do… and she
was saying how good it was. The fried Spam was also extremely delightful.

Then we began our morning hike! Our morning hike was 4 miles
around Lake Meridian that the park sits on! It’s a great little trail that has
many elevation changes! We stopped at the lookout and ate a snack and I
continued to explore the grottos that were below the lookout. How cool is this.
Several of the grottos were full of foliage, and I’m not sure which was more
beautiful. We took a quick 30 minute nap, and headed out on another 2 mile
hike. By the end of our hiking my phone said we’d gone 6.8 miles and climbed 30
floors. Holla.

The wildflowers were in full bloom. And it was gorgeous.

Dinner that night was foil packs cooked over the fire. We
used that wonderful TexJoy seasoning on our chicken with squash, zucchini,
mushrooms, and onions. The fire cooked it perfectly and I ate all. Of. Mine.
Then mom used her new oven to cook a peach cobbler.

The next morning we used the oven to cook biscuits… put that
with apple butter.. and eggs and venison sausage.. and my stomach is SO happy. Did I mention even the bath house was pretty?

If you’re needing a recharge of your self battery.. then
head to Meridian State Park. I didn’t charge my phone battery once… because no
cell service is good for the soul.